Croatia’s ginkgo runner-up in prestigious European Tree of the Year awards

Ginkgo in Daruvar (Photo credit: Davor Kirin/JU-Priroda-BBŽ)

BRUSSELS, 17 March 2020 – The oldest Ginkgo biloba tree in Croatia has come second in the 2020 European Tree of the Year competition. 

The Czech Republic’s Guardian of the Flooded Village pine was named this year’s winner of the prestigious European Tree of the Year awards which were announced in Brussels today. 

Sixteen trees from all over Europe were finalists for the title with Croatia’s ‘in love Ginkgo’ finishing second. Russia’s Lonely Poplar was third. 

The Ginkgo tree is located in the eastern Croatian town of Daruvar, in front of the Caste of Count Janković and is the oldest and largest of its kind in Croatia and one of the oldest in Europe. It was planted over 240 years ago. 

In front of the south entrance to the castle, there are two specimens of Ginkgo biloba trees, a male and a female, originally from China. They are located inside the castle’s park, which grew simultaneously with the making of the castle and it was completed in 1780. It is the oldest tree species on Earth, which has existed for over 200 million years.

The male specimen, with the volume of its trunk over seven meters, locals call Adam, and it is protected as a horticultural monument as an individual tree. Ginkgo biloba trees can grow up to 30 meters in height and 9 meters in width. Unlike the male specimen, the female specimen of the Ginkgo tree, which the locals call Eva, is tall and slim. Ginkgo biloba is a dioecious plant, it blooms from April until May and its seed are mature from October until November. The tree has been protected since 1967.